Wednesday, 9 July 2014

A long list of additions to the Heritage collection at Canadiana.ca includes World War 1 veterans claim cards. They are unindexed and finding aid is lacking. The cards vary in format usually including name, the former service number, the location of land granted as well as various file numbers. They are on 9 reels, T-1322 to T-1330 ordered almost alphabetically by surname. Here's a partial aid in finding the right reel:

Aalrust - Carson: T-1322
Carson - Forwyth: T-1323 (apparent duplication of end materials at start of reel)
Fosbery - Johnson: T-1324
Johnson - Munro: T-1325
Munro - Rhyno: T-1326
Redman - Thomas: T-1327
Thomsen - Zygomet (image 4667): T-1328
The material following on this reel appears to relate to land transfers. Images 4669 to 4694 relate to Carleton County, Ontario - followed by other Ontario counties. Other material on this and the two other reels appear to relate to loans and be arranged geographically. Some could be of considerable interest such as the comment on a card that "Property requires an expert market gardener. The is the second loan declined to the above man.

1 comment:

Glenn W
said...

I think the folks at LAC and Canadiana will have to sit down and start explaining exactly what these records are for the uninitiated user. Veterans Claims -- claims for what? Land, yes. Where is the context? These records were created by the Veterans Land Administration at Veterans Affairs and document Soldier Settlement following the First World War. How can anyone use these cards without a decent explanation of what is on the card? What do the abbreviations mean, what is the card telling us? And, to the best of my knowledge, there are NO files to accompany the index cards. Should that not be explained as well? Digitization of LAC microfilm is a great idea, but without context, appropriate finding aids and an explanation of the record and its research value, most users will leave the site frustrated and confused.